Refugees living in Minnesota have filed a proposed class action urging a federal court to block the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from targeting them and other lawfully admitted refugees in the state with warrantless arrests and unauthorized detentions.

A group of refugees who have resettled in Minnesota asserted in a complaint filed on Friday that a newly announced DHS operation has so far led to more than 100 refugees in the North Star State being abruptly arrested, detained and at times transported as far as Texas without any warning or explanation, in a "Kafkaesque deprivation of their liberty."

"In a chilling disfigurement of this country's refugee policy, refugees who sought safety from authoritarian governments in their home countries are now being subjected to some of the abusive tactics and deprivations of their liberty that they fled and came to the United States to escape," the refugees said in their complaint.

They accuse the federal government of carrying out an "official policy of warrantless and often violent seizures by DHS agents," which they argue is contrary to law, is arbitrary and capricious, and flouts the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on warrantless seizures and the Fifth Amendment's guarantees of due process and equal protection.

The lawsuit centers on an operation DHS announced on Jan. 9 as a "sweeping initiative reexamining thousands of refugee cases through new background checks and intensive verification of refugee claims."

DHS said in its announcement that the operation's initial focus was on 5,600 refugees living in Minnesota who have not yet received lawful permanent residency, or in other words, their green cards. DHS said it had begun referring cases of fraud and other crimes to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But refugees who filed suit on Friday against several government officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, say DHS has its sights set on refugees who entered the United States lawfully, who continue to be in the country lawfully, and who have not been charged with any crimes or violations of immigration law that would subject them to deportation.

"No statute authorizes these warrantless arrests, and ICE's own guidance states that there is no authority to detain refugees merely because they have not yet adjusted their status," the refugees argued, adding that many have already applied to adjust their status to that of lawful permanent residents — yet U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services refused to adjudicate their applications.

The refugees, who sued alongside nonprofit Advocates for Human Rights, said that in the past two weeks following DHS' announcement of the operation, agents have been banging on doors, following cars and showing up at refugees' workplaces and schools.

"Agents provide no explanation of why they are making the arrests and dismiss attempts to show lawful status," the refugees contend.

According to the lawsuit, refugees are typically briefly detained in Minnesota, but many have been flown to Texas with limited or no contact with family members or legal counsel. Refugees subject to interrogations about "sensitive details" concerning their initial refugee applications typically don't have access to their own documents or the opportunity contact an attorney, the suit says.

Some refugees brought to Texas have been released onto the streets without their documents or means to return to Minnesota, the lawsuit asserts.

E. Michelle Drake of Berger Montague, who represents the refugees, said in a statement that the "victimization of refugees as part of a political payback is abhorrent."

"Refugees wait years to come to the United States, often to escape totalitarian regimes," Drake said. "ICE is now behaving worse than the dictators from whom many of our clients escaped. ICE's conduct is shameful and illegal, and we look forward to achieving justice in court."

Kimberly Grano of the International Refugee Assistance Project, who represented the refugees, said the Trump administration "is intentionally and illegally terrorizing resettled refugees who are not accused of any wrongdoing."

"Refugees are being retraumatized, families are being separated, and entire communities are living in fear," Grano said. "It is clear the administration intends to use these baseless detentions and coercive interviews to intimidate refugees and try to terminate the status of people this country promised to protect. We are suing to end these illegal tactics immediately."

The refugees' lawsuit is the latest targeting the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suits earlier this month on behalf of Minnesotans, including three residents who claim federal agents are indiscriminately and unlawfully arresting people based on nothing more than racial profiling.

In another suit, a group of Minnesota residents got a federal judge to block federal immigration agents from retaliating against or detaining without probable cause people who are "engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity" against the immigration operation in the Twin Cities area. The Eighth Circuit, however, issued an administrative stay on Jan. 21 that temporarily lifts the district court injunction.

The state of Minnesota, along with the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, filed suit over the deployment of Border Patrol agents in the state, calling out "militarized raids" and "dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional stops and arrests in sensitive public places, including schools and hospitals — all under the guise of lawful immigration enforcement." 

The judge overseeing that suit is considering whether to preliminarily block the federal government from sending thousands of immigration enforcement officers to the state. 

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The refugees are represented by E. Michelle Drake, John G. Albanese, Joseph C. Hashmall, Hans Lodge, Marika K. O'Connor Grant, Ariana Kiener, Bryan Plaster, Katherine Raths, Jordan Hughes and Soledad Slowing-Romero of Berger Montague, Kimberly Grano, Ghita Schwarz, Mevlüde Akay Alp, Pedro Sepulveda and Megan McLaughlin Hauptman of the International Refugee Assistance Project, and Bardis Vakili and Sarah E. Kahn of the Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law.

The federal government parties are represented by Ana H. Voss and Jesus Cruz Rodriguez of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The case is U.H.A. et al. v. Pam Bondi et al., case number 0:26-cv-00417, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

--Additional reporting by Lauren Berg, Celeste Bott and Ganesh Setty. Editing by Kristen Becker.